Voices from the Deep

Date: 29 March – 13 January 2019
Included in General Admission and Exhibition tickets.

Sunken, forgotten, and then saved from the depths of the ocean: our new temporary exhibition Voices from the Deep displays a selection of over 700 personal letters that have been trapped at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean in a sunken ship for nearly three quarters of a century.

About the SS Gairsoppa

Torpedoed off the coast of Ireland by a German U-Boat on 16 February 1941, the merchant steam boat, the SS Gairsoppa, has lain undisturbed – resting a mile deeper than the Titanic – ever since.

The letters

From soldiers writing to loved ones, to businessmen and missionaries, the letters offer a unique insight into the lives of ordinary people, living in extraordinary circumstances during the Second World War.

The recovery

Mimicking the rescue mission’s search lights piercing through the ocean gloom, you can use UV torch lights to reveal snippets of fragmented letters, enjoy original footage of the recovery of SS Gairsoppa by Odyssey Marine Exploration, and write a postcard to your future self.

The ship’s cargo

For the first time you can see items from the ship’s recently recovered cargo on display including 12 bundles of letters, written 77 years ago but never delivered, and a silver ingot that was making its way from colonial India to the UK to help with the war effort.